


Show Me Yours

by HappyDagger



Series: Requests [7]
Category: Game of Thrones (TV), 킬링 스토킹 | Killing Stalking (Webcomic)
Genre: (at least symptoms of; tagging for possible triggers), (by this one character), (it's Ramsay), Abuse, Abusive Relationships, Alternate Universe - Crack, Antisocial Personality Disorder, Borderline Personality Disorder, Control Issues, Crack Crossover, Crack Relationships, Half-Siblings, I tag on the side of caution, Implied Sexual Content, Implied/Referenced Incest, Implied/Referenced Torture, Loss of Control, M/M, Multi, Points of View, Possessive Behavior, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Rape/Non-con Elements, Sexual Slavery, Size Difference, Xenophobia, and basic hate of all things not-Ramsay, bad people doing bad things to their captives, it's a warning not a promise, possessive Ramsay is best Ramsay, sorry if I'm shitting up your tag, this is pretty awful, this work may self-destruct
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-16
Updated: 2017-03-29
Packaged: 2018-10-05 05:57:16
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 7
Words: 11,242
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10299143
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HappyDagger/pseuds/HappyDagger
Summary: A mix of thramsay and killing+stalking because why not watch the multiverse implode?WitchesBrew wanted to see Ramsay and Sangwoo compare their, uh, projects and Reek & Bum comparing scars. These are the kind of friends I have.It felt like trying to write an Escher puzzle so I hope WitchesBrew enjoys the work I suffered for. U'_'U





	1. Knock, Knock

**Author's Note:**

  * For [WitchesBrew](https://archiveofourown.org/users/WitchesBrew/gifts).



Raindrops pitter-patted lazily the against soft gray windows, luring Bum into dozing when thunderous knocks announced a stranger at the door. The way Sangwoo jogged to open it was reassuring.

Maybe today was not the day. Or maybe they had come for Sangwoo at last, and he was running with his baseball bat bouncing on his shoulder, and would laugh in that horrible way the police would start shooting and Bum could hide in the closet but they would be sure to find him and they would probably know what he is now-

"Come in! Come out of the rain!"

Bum’s racing heart slowed hearing the happy tone. He crept across the room and sat listening through the crack in the door.

"Gee, I'd love to but some jolly green fuckface is blocking the way."

Sangwoo laughed.

"Stop it!" There was a slight scuffle downstairs.

“Didn’t you miss me?”

“I barely remember you, or this apartment. I thought it was bigger…” the voice wasn’t deep like Sangwoo’s. It was sharp, loud, and expressive. He had a Western accent Bum couldn’t place. Something in the detached, cutting, cadence was charming and familiar.

“Because you were so _little,”_ Sangwoo laughed.

 _“Get off of me!”_ The stranger snapped and something heavy landed on the floor. The door slammed.

“Who is this?”

Bum frowned. Who was that delighted tone for? Probably another victim. Another game. Yet, he couldn’t resist opening the door a little more.

 

“Don’t touch him!” Ramsay snapped, smacking the intrusive hand away. “He’s _mine._ ” Ramsay draped an arm around Reek’s neck and pulled him closer then smirked. “What? No one to take our bags?”

Sangwoo tilted his head in an obscene mockery of patient indulgence.

 _It’s just one day,_ Ramsay consoled himself.

His nerves were fucking shot ****, which Ramsay does not tolerate well, having so little experience with the condition. The trip was fucking _torture_ ; horrible dead-eyed little beasts keep separating them, touching Reek, pulling him away to throw in that goddamn fucking space capsule to see _his_ Reek naked, like simpering hyenas circling a lion’s kill. They took Reek and HID him so he could get lost or stolen or- “IS THIS IT?” Ramsay exploded. “Do I have to fucking stand here smelling like fucking airplane farts, covered with some fucking supercomplex flu or do you have running fucking water in this shit hole?!”

Sangwoo leaned over and sniffed Ramsay’s scalp. “You smell like Axe body spray.”

Ramsay shoved him away. “AXE-! THIS IS MOTHERFUCKING YVES SAINT LAURENT! Heard of it?!”

 

Sangwoo laughed and messed the hair on Ramsay’s angry little head. “You can stay upstairs. You’re overtired. Clean up  down the hall, then come eat.”

“That’s what **I** said,” Ramsay sneered. “I’m doing it because **_I_** want to.”

Ramsay’s little friend had tears hanging in his big, hopeless eyes.

“Come, sit down at the table. Are you hungry? You should meet my little friend.” Sangwoo’s hand was smacked away again when he tried to touch the boy’s shoulder.

 _“_ He’s Reek and he _’s not for you,”_ Ramsay hissed.

“Aw, I’m not going to steal your toy, Ramsay.”

“Like you have ‘friends’ anyway,” Ramsay kept grumbling. He yanked Reek’s arm and started marching with him.

Bum jumped back and slammed the door just as a pair of boots came stomping down the hall. He tried to hop then crawl to the closet but the door flew open and hit the wall before he could make it, so Bum spun and tried, uselessly, to cover himself while he panted, wide-eyed on the floor. _“You shouldn’t be here.”_

“Hol-ly shiiiit.” A man with the white-grey eyes of Husky and a broad-shouldered, athletic build, similar to but shorter than Sangwoo’s stared down at Bum as his eyebrows slowly rose on his forehead, concluding with an explosion of laughter. “YOU SICK FUCKING FUCKER!” He yelled to the doorway.

Sangwoo stood there looking amused and rather fondly at the whole scene.

“I can not BELIEVE this shit! Reek! Look!”

Ramsay snapped his quick thick white fingers and the second head slowly peeked around the doorframe. Bum thought he heard the boy mutter something about god. The look on his face wasn’t shock, more like a devastated kind of understanding.

“IF ONLY FATHER WERE ALIVE!” Ramsay laughed.

“Stop shouting, Ramsay.” Sangwoo smiled at the broken boy, silently invited him to agree that Ramsay was simply irascible, but the boy, Reek, quickly lowered his eyes in mute deference to Sangwoo’s opinion. How nice.

“What did you do? What is this? Let me see!” Ramsay dropped to his knees and studied Bum’s gauze.

“Stop it!” Bum tried to pull away but only sank further. Ramsay had the same piercing manic energy Sangwoo gets in the basement. He couldn’t imagine Ramsay ever kissed anyone softly on the wrist or gave anyone a bath, caressing their skin with a warm soft sponge. No. There was nothing gentle in him. It was like Sanwgoo’s rabidness had become a whole other person. Even his teeth were sharp.

“Don’t cry,” Sangwoo said in the low voice he used in the house - out of the basement. Sangwoo came to save Bum with arms outstretched, and Bum released he’d been calling for him under his breath.

“REEK!” Ramsay jumped up while Sangwoo gathered Bum into his arms.

“Stop shouting. You’re scaring them.”

Ramsay froze for a moment, then thawed, carried away by his excitement.

Reek took a few hesitant steps into the room. He didn’t look scared, exactly. His arms were folded up safely in an oversized gray hoodie which fell a little too low over his worn skinny jeans. The toe of the sock, which Reek was digging into the wood floor, was marked by a faded rust-colored stain.

Bum inhaled sharply and studied the man’s exhausted face. He was sure that Sangwoo saw it too; _he’s broken. He’s completely broken._

“Look! Look! Look at this kids fucking bandages! Look how boney he is!” He poked Bum’s ribcage, causing Bum to yelp.

Reek glanced up from the floor at Ramsay just long enough to mumble, “Yes, Master.”

“Hmmph.” Sangwoo smiled. Did he find that funny or…?

“This whole time!” Ramsay laughed in Reek’s direction, who’s heavy eyes responded immediately to his Master’s attention. “This WHOLE time! All these years! Tell them, what did father say?”

Reek smiled a bit and blushed. “That he was a saint, Master?”

“RIGHT?!” Ramsay had to hold his stomach and lean on his Reek, he was so overcome by laughter.

Sangwoo looked happily at Bum, who clearly did not get the joke. Poor guy. “It’s not my fault he hated your mother,” he said so calmly, the words almost slid right by Ramsay’s pointy ears.

Ramsay stopped laughing and went pale. The room turned into a vacuum only Sangwoo could breathe in.

“You broke his ankles?” Ramsay hissed through a cutting smile. “Why? Did he run away from home?”

Now Sangwoo stopped smiling.

Ramsay let the tension buzz then clapped his hands so even Sangwoo flinched. “DOM! Show me your basement!”

“Basement?” Reek almost vomited.

“Dom?” Bum asked the man holding him.


	2. Who's There?

“Jesus!” Ramsay ran down the stairs and staggered this way then that, as if Sangwoo had just opened the gates to Disneyworld. “Un-fucking-believable! I knew it! REEK!”

Reek’s held to tight to the doorframe and looked down into the abyss. “Yes, Master?”

“Did you think I could see you through the fucking wall?”

“No, I’m s-”

“Do you think I suddenly gained the ability to see through solid fucking objects?”

“No, Master.”

“Do you think the wall is transparent?”

“No, Master. It’s not transparent.”

“Do you understand what that means?”

“I’m sorry-”

“Are you allowed to be out of my sight? Come here,” Ramsay decided without waiting for an answer.

Reek winced and whimpered, _“Please,”_ even as he obeyed.

“What’s this?” Ramsay flicked a pulley hanging from the ceiling. “Who was that?” Ramsay kicked a piece of hair and skull into the middle of a blood stain. “Is this where it lives? Why was it upstairs?” Ramsay walked by Reek and poked him to make him jump and whine. “What do you call it?”

“His name is Bum.”

Ramsay’s investigations came to a halt. “Pfffffffffftttt! SERIOUSLY! Fuck!” His laughter bounced around the small dark room. “ _Bum_. Ha! You crazy asshole.”

“Who is Dom?” Bum whispered. “What’s happening?”

Sangwoo leaned against the cool damp brick and held Bum a little closer. “I didn’t name him that Ramsay. Don’t be so rude.”

Ramsay giggled to himself and started pulling drawers open to riffle through the few tools and weapons Dom kept.

“Do you remember I told you I killed my parents?”

“Aw, fucking, really? YOU killed THEM? Of course that’s what he told you! _He_ takes credit for fucking **everything**!”

“Before my father died, he had another son.”

“The better one.” Ramsay poked the tip of his finger with a meathook.

“Ramsay, I didn’t disinfect that.”

“So? If I die then,” Ramsay threw his arms out to gesture dramatically, “ALL OF THIS IS YOURS!”

“It is mine. You have the house in Geneva.”

“How conventional.”

“And Mendellín.”

“Do I look like Pablo fucking Escobar?”

Sangwoo snorted. “Well, if you could grow a mustache…”

Ramsay erupted up from the drain he’d been studying. “I _CAN_ GROW A MUSTACHE, DOM!”

“... and gain a little more paunch…”

“MORE? A little _MORE_? Fuck you!”

Sangwoo carefully laid Bum down on his blanket.

“No, Sangwoo…”

“Take a shower, Ramsay. Then we’ll eat.” Sangwoo crowded Ramsay and waited with placid, sparkling ease to see if Ramsay wanted to play or listen.

Ramsay smiled bitterly. “Reek!” He snapped his fingers and started up the stairs.

“You won’t both fit,” Sangwoo advised him kindly. “Leave him. I’ll make him tea.”

Ramsay stood perfectly still, holding back so much force that he seemed to be vibrating. “No. He stays with me.”

“So bratty,” Sangwoo mumbled, tsk-tsking. “We’ll leave them here, safe from me. Surely, you aren’t scared of Bum.”

“Pffffft. _Bum._ Haha." Ramsay’s black mood shattered. He climbed the stairs giggling. “He’s not a total psycho, is he?” He looked over his shoulder and winked at Bum. “I think I know a little killer when I see one. My Reek is so weak. If _anything_ were to ever happen to him, if he was … _ha_...” a wide grin ripped across Ramsay’s face, “you could never _**suffer enough**_ to make it up to me.”

Bum sank into the floor. His heart was pounding so hard that he was sure everyone could hear it.

“Aw. That’s sweet,” Sangwoo said and patted Ramsay’s back. “How romantic! When’s your anniversary?”

“Fuck you.” Ramsay flinched away from his touch. “That’s when.”

“He couldn’t be safer. Here, I’ll even give you the key.”

Ramsay snatched it away and marched upstairs. “Don’t worry your bleached head about us staying too long; I’m taking him to the dacha in Sochi. I just couldn’t go through EU customs.”

“And you need money?” Sangwoo’s shadow asked his little half brother at the top of the stairs.

“I don’t need _your_ money,” Ramsay grumbled without much fight.

“ **Our** money. Of course, you do. You really fucked up!” Sangwoo laughed and slammed the door, leaving Reek and Bum in darkness.

 

Before too long, their eyes adjusted.

Reek was sat on the bottom step hanging his head.

Bum crawled over slowly and stopped a few feet away, out of arm’s reach, just in case. “Are you... like me?”

Reek sighed through his nose and dipped a little. “I don’t know, honestly. I don’t know you.”

“Do you want to lay down?” Bum squinted to make out Reek’s nebulous features, dancing in the dark each time they nearly came into focus. “It’s clean.” He gestured to the blanket. “I just washed it. Yesterday!"

“Oh. Thanks. I should probably take a shower first. We were in immigration for nearly two hours. There was so many people. Everyone stands so close here.” Reek pulled at the neck of his hoodie as if it was choking him. “Heh. I used to be  good at talking. Now…” Reeks head jerked with a slight twitch then swooned a bit before jerking back.

“I’ll wash it tonight!” Bum crept closer. “Lay down. You’re tired.”

“Maybe…” Reek scratched his head. He slowly stood and held his arms out to feel around. “Is it… am I going the right way?”

“I’ll show you!” Bum barely felt the warmth of Reek’s skin when he yanked his arm away.

“Don’t! I’m sorry. I don’t… I don’t know if you can… I don’t know the rules. I don’t like this. Why did he leave me? Can you get him- or I mean- your, uh… Sangwoo? Could you ask..." Reek shook his head and spun around.

Bum pursed his lips thinking while the fascinating man tried to find his way back to the stairs. “Reek? If you hurt yourself I think Ramsay will eat my face!”

Reek stopped and turned back around. Even in the dark, Bum could see his smile. “Yeah, ha.”

“You’re shaking. Look,” Bum waved his arms. “Can you see me?”

Reek nodded.

“I’ll wave you in.”

“Like the people with those big orange sticks on the tarmac?”

 

It worked and soon Reek collapsed. “This was a good idea. Thanks. It’s so weird; we really made it out?”

“Were the police looking for you?” Bum’s fingertips landed, one after another, on the edge of the blanket.

“For him. People think I’m dead… I think. I haven’t been outside…”

“I haven’t either. Just once… twice, since this happened.”

Reek swallowed a salty lump in his throat. “He hurts you a lot?”

“Not too much. Sometimes.”

“Will you talk to me? If you’re not too tired or… I might pass out. He used to keep me in a basement. I keep _feeling_ so many things like they’re happening. Your voice helps to drown it out. Is that ok?”

“Yes,” Bum whispered and leaned closer.

“You aren’t scared of me?” Reek looked up at Bum like he begging for forgiveness. “I won’t hurt you. I don’t want to hurt anyone,” he yawned.

They could hear water running through the pipes above them. Reek’s hand was wider than Bum’s. His fingers were longer. His pinky was missing.

Yoon Bum scooted his way up quietly in the dark until his boney knees sank into the blanket. “Are you scared of me, Reek?”

“You scare me a little, but I don’t care that you do. Sorry. You seem nice.”

Bum’s heart fluttered. He licked his lips and told Theon his story, how it started when he got _stuck_.

 

Before long, Reek was sleeping.

Bum put a palm on the blanket and leaned closer still. He reached out with just one finger at first, ghosting through the dark. 

At last, his fingertips sated themselves running through Reek’s soft bunny hair. _“I hope we can keep you.”_


	3. Go Fuck Yourself

 

**_~27 hours ago~_ **

**_***_ **

 

Damon’s pickup truck roared around the dusty corner and skidded, screeching to a stop in front of the cabin. Luton jumped out first. The rest of his boys emerged from slamming doors.

Ramsay sat on the hot hood of his blood red Ferrari. “Did you find him?”

“RAMSAY!” Luton cried. “It’s too late! She’s on the fucking NEWS!”

_“Shit.”_

“What if she remembers how to get here? What if she-”

“Luton, lower your voice.” Ramsay closed his eyes a moment and drew a deep breath. “So, you didn’t find him? Was he on the news?”

“Reek?” Dick barked as he marched up the driveway. “Who gives a shit! That fucking cunt saw my FACE, Ramsay!”

“Yeah. I know.” Ramsay hopped off his favorite car for the last time.

“He won’t say anything,” Damon grumbled. He put an arm around Ramsay’s shoulder. “You already have the best lawyers on retainer, this is what they’re for.”

“Right. My father did force me to plan ahead. Almost nice of him, really.”

“MY name is on the lease, Ramsay!” Luton was pacing up and down the gravel road, clutching his head. “It’s only a matter of time! How many cabins are out here?! They’re going to find it and she’ll take them to the incinerator and-”

“Luton.” Ramsay stopped his handsome young friend, grabbing his shoulders. “Relax.”

“I can’t do this. I can’t go to prison!”

“Sweetie, I **_just_ ** said I planned ahead, didn’t I? You’re not going to prison, I promise.” He slipped behind Luton’s back and turned him to face Yellow Dick.

Skinner pulled himself back into the truck.

“Look at that stupid fuck Dick,” Ramsay whispered in Luton’s ear. “Why did I always tell you I kept his annoying, jaundiced, dumbass around?”

Luton nodded and pulled his gun. He leveled it at Dick who didn’t have enough time to even throw up his hands or protest before the back of his skull exploded and his body collapsed.

“That's right.” Ramsay patted Luton's shoulder. “Too bad that asshole kept gaining weight. You think his charred remains would still pass for mine?”

“But what about the _lease_?! What if she leads them right back here?”

“You’re panicking, Luton. Give me the gun.” His hand wrapped around Luton’s as they gazed upon Yellow Dick’s body.

“What do I tell the police?!”

Ramsay frowned. “Nothing.” He turned away and guided the gun to Luton’s head with a swift determined yank. The bang resounded with a piercing ring, which pained Ramsay’s left ear all the way to the airport.

Suddenly, Damon’s hand hovered near his hip like he was in some spaghetti goddamn western.

“What? I’m not going to kill you, fuckface. What are you doing?”

Damon smiled uneasily. “I didn’t think you would kill Luton either.”

“For fuck’s sake. I HAD to kill Luton! He was going to sell me, Skinner, and your giant ass the fuck out! You really think he wouldn’t make a deal while piss ran down his fucking leg the next time he saw a fucking meter maid?” Ramsay’s shoulders sank. “I didn’t _want_ to kill him.”

Damon nodded without relaxing his arm. Skinner remained hidden in the truck, aiming at Ramsay’s head, for all he fucking knew.

“Right. Congratulations, to you two shit eating motherfuckers, by the way. I’ll divide Luton’s share of the Swiss trust my father set up between you. Of course, if you betray me the money stops so… there you go. I don’t have to kill.... my friends.”

“Oh.” Damon’s hand dropped at last. “I think I'll go look for Reek at his-”

“I’m paying you to do shit like take Dick’s body to the incinerator and leave the job half done, _Damon,_ not to fucking think.”

Ramsay flicked them both off as he went inside. First, that fucking whore leaves him, now his supposed friends show their true fucking colors, and worst of all- “Reek!”

He was sitting there on the stairwell, folded up neatly, ready to be stowed and carried. Reek looked up with large, red eyes. “I didn’t leave you.”

Ramsay swallowed and ran his tongue around his flexing jaw. “Of course, you didn’t,” he said more weakly than he intended. “I’m not a fucking idiot. You wouldn’t last one god damned fucking day without me.”

A salty tear fell into Reek’s crooked smile.

“You got our Go Bags ready?”

Reek nodded. “If… can I come with-”

“SHUT UP!” Ramsay dove onto Reek and tried to devour him. Reek was giggling and doing his wobbly happy-crying Ramsay loved but would never understand. He cried out when Ramsay bit him but pulled him closer anyhow.

“We have to go.”

“Yeah, I know.” Ramsay stopped and held tight to Reek’s throat and the messy hair at his scalp. “I would have found you.”

Reek just smiled bigger like some insane beautiful idiot. “I know. But I didn’t run away.”

“No shit! Get up! Let’s go. I’ll have a driver pick us up at the mall. Study your passport, learn your new name and birthday and shit. NOT NOW! We’re taking my bike! You want all that shit to blow away?”

“No. What about- I thought Damon would-”

“Fuck Damon. Fuck all of them.” Ramsay pulled Reek along and laughed over his shoulder. “I was just _using_ them. Dumbshits. I’m only taking you with me. Aren’t you lucky?”

Reek grinned and they started running.

 

*******

  


When Ramsay emerged from the shower, Dom was standing there holding out a towel like the creeptastic, soulless fucktard he really is. Ramsay frowned bitterly then grabbed and shook his junk. “Jealous? Get a good show, you fucking pervert?”

Dom smirked. “No towel rack.”

“Please. It’s so fucking wet and humid here I'm surprised you people don't just forgo towels altogether.” Ramsay snatched the towel then suddenly looked entirely too pleased with himself. “Say, Dom, what do you call yourself here?”

“Sangwoo, why?”

“You’ll see.”

_“Ramsay.”_

“Are you expecting someone else?”

“What?”

“Do you have a curious friend or inept groundskeeper who comes around unannounced?”

“What are you talking about?”

“Oh, Dom. You haven’t been paying attention. Thank god I’m here!”

 

It was an itch and tickle on his scalp that made Reek shake his head and start to wake.

It happened again, something stuck in his hair, so he swatted at the annoyance and hit the flat side of a blade.

“What the fuck!” Reek jumped and stumbled blindly in the dark, crashing shoulder first into a wall.

“No, it’s ok! I’m not hurting you! Reek, I’m not going to hurt you.”

“What-what are you doing?” Reek pressed his back against the brick and tried to slide toward the sliver of light coming from the top of the stairs.

“I just never see anyone… nice anymore. I may never see you again.”

Reek’s hand flew to his head and found the flat rough edge where a lock had been cut. He held his breath and continued to inch along.

“Reek! Please,” his small voice was getting closer, “come lay down.”

“No,” Reek jerked away from his invisible touch. He fell on the stairs and started crawling up. “I just want Ramsay. It’s too much. I need Ramsay.”

“No, no, please, Mr. Reek!”

“What?” Reek pulled himself closer to the door and held tight to the knob. “Heh, that’s not my last name. It’s uh… that’s just what he calls me.”

Bum’s figure availed itself at last. He was so small and frail. White gauze nearly glowed around his chin, neck, and ankles. “Don’t hate me.”

It was a blow to Reek’s heart and stomach. “I don’t. I don’t, I promise.”

“Come lay down. They’ll be back soon. The water stopped. Did he take your fingers?”

Reek gripped the doorknob more tightly and answered in a whisper, “Yes. It hurts to think about it. I mean, I try to forget a lot of things.”

Bum sat by Reek’s mangled feet and stared up in a kind of hungry fascination Reek couldn’t understand enough to tolerate. He smiled brightly through the dark. “Well, did you get away? Did you really get away for a few hours or days or… what did you do? Is that what happened?”

“I DIDN’T RUN AWAY!” Reek watched himself fighting with the handle and pounding the door.

“Don’t! Don’t! No, shhh. Stop that! Shh,” Bum leaped to grab Reek’s mouth with a trembling hand as Reek caught the doorknob. Bum’s cool spidery hands fluttered all around Reek then his arms yanked at Reek’s chest.

Reek, or maybe Theon really, meant to tell Bum not to yank him from the door because they would both end up falling down the stairs, maybe to their deaths or just further mutilation. But that wasn’t what happened or how his body responded to his detached thoughts.

 

“See? There.”

“Oh, fuck me.” Dom pulled back from the window and sighed.

Ramsay kept peering through the glass. “Who is he?”

“A nobody police officer.”

“Wait, shut up.” Ramsay stood erect and held his hand up for silence. “Do you hear that?”

“What?”

“That banging…” he looked at his half-brother a moment, then they both ran downstairs.


	4. Get it?

“He thinks I left for the day. Fucker.”

Ramsay jogged after Dom down the staircase then passed him on the landing. “He’s done this before?” Ramsay giggled.

“Ramsay! Go away. I’ll handle it.”

Ramsay skidded to a stop in front of the door. “What was that? Do what?” Ramsay opened the door just as Dom grabbed it.

A startled man in a dingy gray suit stood on the sidewalk blinking at them. His glasses were foggy from the dense humidity.

“Where’s the food?” Ramsay demanded.

“Food?”

Ramsay walked out onto the stoop to look the man over. _A worm_ , he assessed.“You’re the take out guy, right? I’m starving!”

 **“** This is Officer… uh… what was your name again?”

The man frowned. “Yang.”

“Of course. How can I help you this time?”

Ramsay leaned back into the doorframe and grinned. “I don’t think you’re charming this one, Sangwoooo.”

_“Quiet.”_

“Now I’m annoying him. Have you ever seen him _annoyed?”_ Ramsay’s eyebrows bounced suggestively.

“I…” the nervous worm struggled to swallow and drop his high voice, “I received a report that a man was being held here… that he may…”

Ramsay turned to Dom before Officer Yang could finish. “Does he think we’re gay? Is that still illegal here?”

Dom rolled his eyes, looking less amused with each passing moment.

“Gah!” The worm turned hot red. “Of course not!”

“So? What? A cute guest has been spotted here with black hair and light eyes, smaller than him?" Ramsay thumbed over his shoulder. "That’s me! Hello, officer. I was sick but I’m better now. What neighbor is spying on us?” Ramsay enjoyed himself as he pretended to look around. “How distasteful, don’t you think, Sangwoo?”

Dom faked a graceful smile only Ramsay could see through. “Go lay down. You still need to rest.”

“But why is he still here?” Ramsay insisted, staring directly at the worm. “I’m a foreigner if you can’t tell, and I just bet you can, so excuse my ignorance. Do police often make house calls for no reason at all? I doubt it. I’m not fucking him if that’s your concern.”

Officer Yang made a noise Ramsay had never heard before. _Neat_.

Dom rubbed his temple and sighed.

“I’m his brother!” Ramsay laughed. “What’s wrong? Don’t see the resemblance?”

Actually, Seungbae did. “There was a disturbance…”

“Yeah, we fight. _He’s a fucking control freak,”_ Ramsay confided. “So? Is sibling rivalry illegal or what?”

“Well…”

“Didn’t you fight with your brothers?”

“Stop barking at him, Bumi. _Get inside!”_ Dom yanked Ramsay back, who finally shrugged and slunk away. “I’m sorry. My little brother… can be a lot to deal with. After we lost our father…” Dom sighed in the most heroic, yet relatable way. “I’m all he has. I’ll try to be more patient, ok?” Sangwoo winked, then his handsome, all too believable face disappeared behind his door.

“RAMSAY!”

He was sitting on the kitchen table knocking his heels together in a lazy rhythm “Yeah, yeah, don’t worry. I’m leaving soon. Tomorrow, hopefully. There is, like, no fucking furniture in this shit hole.”

“You never. **Listen**.”

“You’re welcome. I just bought you another year or two; plenty of time to kill that little bitch. I would do so sooner rather than later, by the way. You got under his skin, Dom. I’m the only one in the world who understands, yet here I am betraying him for you,” he lamented.

Dom’s march was a direct line to Ramsay’s throat, but he couldn’t bring himself to appear concerned. Hopping off the table certainly wasn't an option so he looked his brother in the eye, which he was always loathe to do. “What did you call me?”

“What?” That stopped him.

“What did you call me just now, in front of that policeman?”

Most likely, Dom just didn’t know what to say, yet he managed to look deliberately condescending through his controlled demeanor and all too much like their father for Ramsay to stand. “How the hell did you even find him?” Dom leaned against the table and they both stared down the empty hallway at the locked front door. “You have to take care of that cop if you plan to bring more people in and bodies out.”

“Yeah.” Dom smiled then and put an arm around Ramsay. “I didn’t go looking for Bum.”

Ramsay snickered, too amused to remember to pull away.

“He came to me.”

“Bullshit.”

“He did. He broke in because he loves me. My little stalker…”

Ramsay frowned, jealous again. Then he offered Dom an exact replica of his own serene smile. “So why did he leave?”

“He didn’t," Dom answered, easy as air. "I let him out, just to teach him-”

“UGHK!” Ramsay hopped off the table. “I should kill the poor little bitch just to save him from your ‘lessons.' Hey! That sneaky snake didn’t knock, Dom. He wasn’t at the door,” Ramsay explained before Domeric’s building rage could reach a maniacal level. “I think it was a banging- a wrapping at your basement door.”

 

Reek had begun exhausting himself back into sanity when Bum slipped. Miraculously, his tight, overwrought nerves served Reek well yet again. He’d lost muscle mass but not the reflexes which had once won him pretty trophies and so spun to catch both the little man, whom his body was fleeing and the doorknob so he didn’t fall as well.

Bum was safely there, swooning in his arm, staring with wide, helpless eyes. “Sorry if I smell.”

Reek grinned warmly and pulled Bum closer until they were both safe on the small landing. “Sorry that I freaked out. I can’t stop it sometimes when it starts. It’s like watching someone else. I think…” How the fuck could he put this into words anyone could understand, let alone be comforted by? “My body keeps trying to run. It just happens. I don’t know. Here, can I…?” He slowly, carefully picked Bum up and put the boy on his hip.

Bum wrapped his arms around Reek’s neck and pressed his head to Reek’s chest.

Reek swallowed and warmed. “Ok. Let’s go easy.”

 

He laid Bum on the blanket and started back to wait on the stairs.

“You like me?” Bum was already crawling after him.

“No, stay. Please.” Reek picked the boy up again and plopped him back on the blanket. “Stay there where you’re safe. I’m not good right now. I like you, yeah. I do. I like you. I’m all…” he shook his hands to try to explain. “Another thing could happen. I’m not used to people touching me so just-”

Bum struggled to stand and smiled up at him. “I’m not scared. I’ll be your friend.” He started to hobble behind Reek who was heading for the stairs again.

“No, don’t- ok. Ok.” Reek picked the boy up again and took him back to the blanket and sat down with him. “We’ll stay here, ok?”

“Ok! You can tell me everything.”

“I don’t like to.”

“I’m a good listener,” Bum said more softly.

“Well… what if we ask each other ‘yes’ or ‘no’ questions?”

Bum nodded happily and scooted closer. “Do you have other friends?”

“Not anymore. Are you afraid of dying here?”

“Yes.” Bum looked down and his face was lost to shadow until it emerged with another smile, so completely discordant with their circumstances. “I think I will. I’m not always afraid, though, and I don’t always think it will be soon. My turn. Did you ever have sex with any girls or... before?”

For a moment, Reek became a grinning stranger. “Lots with both.”

“Oh.” _Of course, he did._

“Has it gotten better or worse here, with him?”

“That’s not ‘yes’ or ‘no’,” Bum laughed nervously.

“Sorry. I’m sorry.”

“Then tell me a secret.”

Reek rubbed the top of his head. “... What?”

“Tell me one secret that no one knows but you and your Master.”

 _Your Master._ Reek still wasn’t used to other people calling Ramsay that.  

“Why?”

“Because then when he takes you away, I’ll have a part of you for myself.”

“Like my hair?”

“Yeah,” Bum’s face disappeared again. Reek could just barely make out the narrow crown of his dark head. “But you ruined that.”

"I did?" Reek chewed the inside of his bottom lip, treading in indecision. “Alright.”

Bum’s happy face rose like the morning sun. Reek leaned close and whispered. Then the doorknob jangled and he was a ghost who Bum reached for but couldn’t touch.

 

“REE- umph!” Ramsay fell back with Reek wrapped tightly all around him. He giggled and reprimanded, “You fucking pussy. Are you scared of that tiny boy? You should be ashamed of yourself.” By which Ramsay clearly meant he was delighted. “Did you play nice?”

Reek dug the bridge of his nose into Ramsay’s neck. He was trembling too much.

Dom calmly walked downstairs whistling a fucking tune and that sure as fuck MEANT something, so Ramsay’s joy was quickly dampened. He sat up in the empty closet and scanned the empty room. What was it?

Ramsay pulled Reek closer without thinking and starting to pull and pet his messy hair. It almost dawned on him, then a sharp and terrible distraction. “WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS?!” He held up the stub of a hacked lock of sandy brown hair, which quickly turned red along with everything.


	5. Now Pay Attention

_~5 hours Earlier~_

*******

 

Reek had never seen a city so big. It went on forever, swarming with people in neat, clean clothes, styled hair. What must he look like? Like a shut in, like a hostage, like an animal loose from its cage. “Jesus!” He hid in Ramsay’s side as another car blew through a red light.

Ramsay put an arm around him and idly played with his hair. “Reek?”

 _This is it._ He was bound to ask and Reek still couldn’t decide if he should lie or not, rather, he knew he ‘shouldn’t’ lie but had no idea what the truth’s exposure would mean. Maybe Ramsay would just kill him at last, but probably not. He knew already. He had to. But sometimes Ramsay was willfully delusional. If he asks, then Ramsay knows, and he’s ready to shatter any denial which he may have entertained, so then the lie would infuriate him and-

_“Reek?”_

“Yes?” he replied softly into Ramsay’s hard side.

“I asked you a question. What rhymes with Reek?”

Reek looked up. Ramsay was looked more present and calm than he had since the funeral. He glanced at the cab driver. He didn’t seem to speak English anyhow. “Weak. Meek. Sweet.”

Ramsay smirked. “Sweet? Not really.”

“What?!”

“Relax,” Ramsay laughed. He pinched Reek’s nose and gave it a tiny shake. “It doesn’t really _rhyme,_ dumbass.”

Reek smiled shyly.

“You’re pretty sweet, though so it’s alright. I need you to be **Reek** at my brother’s. It’s extremely important. Do you understand?”

“Yes, Master.”

Ramsay’s tongue poked into his cheek. He slowly bit down on it, considering how to phrase things. “You remember my father?”

“Yes.”

No, that wasn’t quite right. “So, imagine a guy a lot like me.”

“Ok…”

“Now imagine Father had married my mother before I was even conceived, and I used to live in this gorgeous house in Tokyo, but I barely remember any of that, because my father left my mother and I when another, better marriage of convenience came along.”

“Oh.”

“Then your mom takes you to her home which you never knew, and you're this double outsider in a poor area of a strange country and your mom marries this piece of shit who drinks away all her alimony and probably murdered her. So you spend every waking second subconsciously becoming Mr. Perfect, Mr. Affable, Mr. Fucking Aw-Shucks-Am-I-Charming-You-Without-Trying? That’s Domeric. But you can guess what’s beneath the surface, right?”

Reek nodded and clutched his bag to his chest.

“Even Father fell for it! ‘Oh, your brother this’ and ‘Ughhh, yes, Domeric that.’ He tried twice to take Dom home with him, but Dom couldn’t leave his mommy. Father was pathetically blind to how much Domeric hated him.”

Ramsay’s fingers drummed against the hard leather seat. He was unphased when the cab driver barely dodged an elderly woman, but Reek was sure he was having a real heart attack this time. “What I need you to understand is; you must obey me completely… and to do that, you have...” Ramsay seemed to suddenly taste something bitter, and looked out the window “...to not fight my brother. Not even a little. Not even if you think it’s for me. Just picture my father and, just, treat him that way. No matter what.” Ramsay turned back and smiled. “That’s it! Then we’ll get the money and leave.”

“I think I’m gonna puke,” Reek whined softly.

“Almost there. It’s a lot for you, this trip.”

Reek stared at Ramsay, trying to understand this compassion where hatred should be.

“Once we’re in our new home, you’ll be happier. No more boys, no more victims, just you and I.”

Reek dove the few inches between them and wrapped tightly around Ramsay, who rubbed his cheek in Reek’s soft wavy hair.

 

***

 

“WHAT HAPPENED? COME AND LOOK AT WHAT THAT THING DID!” Ramsay yanked his bent pet forward by a fistful of ruined loose curls and screamed down the hidden stairwell as Reek desperately held onto his wrist with both hands. “GET UP HERE! Come out of the fucking closet, Dom, we’ve been waiting forever!” Ramsay bent Reek’s head to look up at him. “Get it?”

“What are you barking about now?”

“LOOK AT THIS!” He twisted Reek’s head around and pointed out the offense. Then he flung out his arm to accuse the guilty offender. “PUNISH IT!”

Dom barely raised an eyebrow and smiled patiently. “You’re not making sense. You must be overtired. Go nap, Ramsay.”

“Your. Toy. Stole. From. Me.”

“What did he steal?”

“THIS! GIVE HIM TO ME!” Ramsay released Reek and lunged at Dom’s toy.

“No.” Dom spun Bum out of Ramsay’s reach and pushed him back by his angry face.

“Look at me, you fucking runt! That is MY hair, which you stole from MY head. I want it BACK and I want something of yours, like the nail on your tiny little-”

“No, Ramsay. Hair grows back,” Dom rumbled, firm yet seemingly amused.

“So do nails.”

“Nothing was stolen. You’re acting like an animal. You should see your face!” Dom laughed and put Bum down in the closet behind him and slid the door shut.

“Animal?”

“Yes. Like, hmm. What is it? A rabid animal! Haha!”

“I am going to fucking blackout, Dom.”

“I know, I know. I won't let you hurt anything. When you started barking I thought you had finally figured out what’s been bothering you.”

Ramsay gritted his teeth and started subtly shaking his head. _“Why do you have to pull this shit?”_

“Do you get it yet? Don’t you **see**? You don’t! That’s the problem and the answer to the question you don’t even know how to ask.”

“Why?!”

“No, no. That’s all wrong. You should ask Where!”

“You fucking psycho asshole! God damn it!”

“Where is… what?” Dom lifted his hands. It couldn’t be simpler, and it was truly shameful how much he was helping with no result yet.

Ramsay’s chest started heaving. His hands dropped open at his side. “I hate you. I fucking hate you, Domeric. I actually thought we could both live through this. I only want NOT EVEN all of what’s MINE. Why?! What the fuck is wrong with you?”

“Say it.”

“Fuck you.”

“Ask.”

“Fuck yourself. Fucking kill yourself, monster.”

“Well, haha, if I did that HOW WOULD YOU KNOW, STUPID?!” Dom started laughing again; a lower version of Ramsay’s stabbing giggle.

Reek curled up in a corner and began to chant under his breath.

Ramsay gripped his head with both hands. “Right. Father isn’t completely dead, is he? Not while you’re alive.”

“If I was dead,” Dom said slowly, each syllable a step closing the space between them, “how would you ever know _where_? Say it. Ask me! Where.”

Ramsay shook his head defiantly, shoving at his skull with both hands as though that could stop the explosion.

“Are.”

“Stop.”

“The.”

“St- BAGS! WHERE ARE OUR FUCKING BAGS!”

“Hurray!” Dom clapped for Ramsay, right in front of his wild face and put a heavy hand around the back of his neck. "You did it!"

“Where are our passports? I just want-”

“Ramsay!" Dom laughed, leaning on him now.

“OUR FUCKING PASSPORTS! You want one of us to die? Fine!”

“Well, no. I don’t really want to kill you. Sounds boring. You’re so much more fun alive like this. You’re… electric! And if you kill me, how long before you find the passports? A few weeks? Maybe. Maybe never. Then what? You don’t have visas to stay. You don’t have access to your accounts or even any wons. You can’t get a job or flee,” Dom mused. “If you get deported… yikes, right?”

“What do you want?

"What if I did kill you? In self-defense, of course. What would happen to..." he pointed to the occupied corner across from them and smiled because it was the best fucking joke he had told in years.

"WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU FUCKING **WANT,** DOMERIC?!”

“Forgive Bumi and settle down.”

Ramsay stood there in the center of the empty room, under his half-brother's shadow, making fists like he was clutching his slipping sanity. _“Fine.”_ He chomped the word as he spat it out.

“I know! I can punish Bum then we’ll all be a happy family again!”

“Oh my god…”

Dom took a hold of Ramsay’s shoulders and bent down. “You want to watch, right? Remember, t _he big wooden spoon the sharp little knife?”_

“I’m **not** playing with you. It’s night here already. I can’t imagine what time we’re on… how long we’ve been up. We need to eat, he needs to bathe, and we need to sleep.”

Dom motioned toward the hallway. “The bathroom is right next door.”

“Can you get us some beer and chicken, Dom? THAAAAAANKS!” He snapped for Reek, who jumped up to follow.

Dom watched them leave, lightly scratching the back of his tilted head.

 

“Let’s practice again.”

Reek had loved everything about baths for awhile now; the gentle sound of water moving and soft touches, the tenderness in Ramsay’s voice. He leaned closer to the side of the tub where Ramsay knelt. “Yes, Master.”

“That’s not a good start,” Ramsay teased and snapped at Reek’s neck. “Pete!”

“Alexei?”

They both smirked. The knots unwound in Reek’s fraught muscles. He knew something was different and better now, though he couldn’t understand why.

“You’re saying wrong. Head back. Good boy.” He poured water over Reek's face. 

Reek hummed softly.

“Alek-say.”

“Alexei?”

“Ah-lek-seh. Try that.”

“Alexei.”

Ramsay smirked. “Better. My turn; Pete. Bam. Nailed it.” He splashed Reek who grinned.

"Yes, Alexei?"

"Pete, get your mouth ready to suck my delicious cock tonight."

"Yes, Alexei."

"Peter!"

"What? Um, what, Alexei?"

They both looked to the door when the hallway floor creaked outside it. Ramsay sighed.

 _What does he want?_ Reek mouthed.

Ramsay shrugged and shook his head dismissively. “Let’s wash your poor hair.” _To_ **_fuck_ ** _with me,_ Ramsay mouthed and mimed to illustrate.

Reek bit his lip trying not to smile.

There was a knock on the door, high above them. “I have chicken and beer for you two.”

“Thanks. Just leave it, Dom. Hate to keep you up!” Ramsay yelled back with acrid cheerfulness.

He opened the door to shut that idea down. “Here’s his clothes. You don’t have shit in your bags. Are you homeless or something?”

Ramsay snatched Reek’s clothes and tried to wipe Dom’s molecules off of it.

“I got you Guinness.”

“Super. _Thanks.”_ Ramsay so busy hating Dom he almost forgot to love Guinness. “Remember what I told you on the way here?”

Reek nodded.

“Come on! Everyone come eat!” Dom banged the kitchen table. “HAPPY FAMILY!”

“Reek!” Ramsay grabbed both his hands and held them. “I need you to trust me. I’ll forgive you if you trust me.”

Reek’s jaw sank then bopped uselessly. He cleared his throat and blinked a tear onto his wet skin. “Yes. I promise. I promise I trust you.”

“Good boy. Remember.” He gave Reek’s hands a squeeze then pulled the drain plug and helped him to stand. “Let’s just fucking get through this, right?”

Reek nodded, dumb with the concept; _forgiveness._


	6. I Was Only Joking

Ramsay stared at Dom who smiled back and glanced at Bum, who was peeking at Reek, who was pondering the food. The four of them sat around the kitchen table facing small neat dishes of, what looked to be, multi-flavored boneless chicken wings and a bowl of… cabbage? Noodles? Ramsay had almost certainly requested this meal for its simple familiarity, yet Reek still managed to feel ignorant. He sighed and glanced around the table again.

It wasn’t the food that made him feel lost.

Ramsay picked a slightly yellow-looking piece and popped it in his mouth.

“Good?” Dom asked with his punchable easy smile.

“Yuh ish ‘uckin’ ‘an-ahs-ick.” Ramsay gave his brother a joyless thumbs up.

“That’s rude.”

 _“You’re rude._ You stole my fucking shit.”

Dom shook his head at Bum, in an half-hearted appeal for sympathy. Bum didn’t know what to say or do, so offered a flinching smile then focused on eating.

“I didn’t steal anything,” Dom corrected patiently.

“Oh? Really?” Ramsay asked sarcastically. He stood to look around for a bottle opener. “You mean you’ll give it back?”

“Obviously.”

 _“Obviously,”_ Ramsay mimicked. “God, you’re disgusting. You sound just like him.”

“I do?”

Ramsay smirked and rummaged through the largely empty kitchen cabinets, snuck a quick look in the refrigerator. His shoulders jerked up to his ears at the pop, hiss, and clink of his bottle being opened.

“Sit down, Ramsay.”

 _I hate you. I hate your fucking face, I want to set it on fire._ Ramsay dawned a pleasant smile before turning around and taking his seat. He went to grab his Guinness, but Dom snatched and dangled it just out of reach. “What do you say?”

“I want to set your smug face on fire.” _Shit._ That was out loud. “That’s uh, an Americanism. It means ‘thank you’ and vice versa,” he added under his breath.

Dom shook his head; _tsk tsk tsk._

Tap, tap, tap. Ramsay’s drumming fingers flew from the table to his bottle. He kept staring into Dom’s dead gray eyes and chugged the beer until he slammed the empty bottle on the table.

Dom opened another and slid it to Reek. Ramsay intercepted it and flashed his eyebrows. He grinned and kept staring while he drank some more.

 _Pft. What a child._ Dom frowned and leaned back in his chair. “I’m bigger than you, Ramsay.”

“My _dick_ is bigger.”

Dom frowned. “No, it isn’t.”

“Ha! Pervert.” Ramsay winked and kept drinking.

Dom seemed to grow a slight shade darker with each passing moment.

“This is deli-”

“Shut up.” Ramsay still stared at Dom and drank some more.

Reek cleared his throat uneasily and looked to Bum for some kind of sympathy, but that wasn’t what he found. _What the hell is happening?_ Bum’s gray eyes dropped; not from dejection, not from disgust or boredom. Reek wanted to forget it and everything but couldn’t.

“You’re an idiot.” Dom downed his beer and set the empty bottle across from Ramsay’s two.

“So?” Ramsay took another bottle and popped the cap off by hitting it off the table’s edge.

Dom frowned. “You scratched my table.”

“How traumatic for you. I’d use the bottle opener but some asshole is Bogarting it.”

Dom dropped it in the center of the table.

“Gee, thanks. Well, I would like to get at least a portion of my inheritance from Deutsche Bank. You can’t spend it without my death certificate, which would be quite an ordeal to obtain even if I _was_ dead, and I can’t access the account unless you sign off on it. So...?”

“I guess Father planned ahead for _every_ outcome.”

“Oh, please. If he thought I would come here and try to convince you I didn’t kill him, he was more delusional than I thought possible.”

Domeric shrugged. “You could have bypassed my consent with the correct autopsy report. I don’t think he wanted you to convince me of anything.”

“So?” Ramsay asked again. “Are you going to kill me?” He slammed a third empty bottle down and took another. “Or what? I’ll split it with you otherwise. You’re obviously in need. I just want a little fun money.”

“Slow down, you’re embarrassing yourself.”

“Keep up. You look like a fucking pussy, big man.”

Dom opened another bottle and downed it smoothly. He blinked and licked his lips before carefully setting the bottle down.

“Strong, right? You like stouts, Dom?”

“I already told you I’m not interested in killing you. You’re right, I don’t give a shit if you murdered him. I’m almost proud of you.”

“Thank you.” Ramsay clinked his bottle to Dom’s. “Cheers.” Dom smirked and wiped his brow with the back of his pressed cotton sleeve. “SO? What. Do. You. Want?”

“Did she ask that of you?”

Ramsay threw his head back in frustration and dropped both hands on the table.

Dom turned to study Reek’s miserable face, even as he addressed his little brother. “I bet that’s what they all ask. They ask me. I know the one who got away wasn’t the first. Was she different, though? How did she get away? Did she ask, ‘What do you want?’ Did she scream it like the others?”

“Yes.”

“What did you say? What do you usually say when they ask? That’s my answer to you.”

Ramsay kept staring up and pulled his arms onto the top of his head. What kind of asshole cleans his fucking ceiling? “You said you didn’t want to kill me.”

“Was that your answer? ‘To kill you!’ How pathetic. Where’s your imagination and honesty?”

“You want to torture me?”

“Say it.”

“You want to play?! Fine.” Ramsay blinked and swallowed. “You win.”

Dom rested his head on his fist and smiled his charming smile at Reek. “Hey.”

Reek looked up.

“That’s better. I invited you into my home, to eat my food at my table with me.”

“Thank you. It’s very-”

“Shut up, Reek,” Ramsay mumbled.

“He’s polite. You should try it. The least he can do is talk to me. Reek?”

Reek glanced at Ramsay who was still burning holes into the ceiling and back, and Bum who didn’t look so… angry perhaps, as he did before then meekly turned to Dom. “Y-yes?”

“How did that girl get away?”

“I… um…”

“I bet you were there, right? You don’t seem used to people. I bet he never lets you out of his sight.”

Reek started turning red. He clutched the table. “Well… uh, she…”

 _“Fucking please!”_ Ramsay dropped his chair back down onto all four legs. “Like I don’t fucking know. We already dealt with it, asshole. I forgave him.”

Reek swallowed and sniffed. He used his napkin to wipe tears away. “I’m sorry.”

“I don’t give a shit about Jeyne. And _Reek_ didn’t leave. **He** was sitting in the house waiting for me.”

“Bum didn’t leave,” Dom snapped.

“Sure. Sure, Dom. Whatever you have to tell yourself.”

“He loves me.”

“Oh, yeah, of course. Your little stalker. He could never, say, move onto a shiny new obsession the moment you started to be a real boring person who didn’t magically solve all his problems, right?” He planted both elbows on the table and leaned toward Bum. “Still have that lock of hair in your pocket, buddy?”

Bum’s eyes widened at once. He started panting and sweating.

Ramsay slid back and opened his fourth bottle. “You are so behind.”

Reek took his hand under the table. Ramsay gave it a squeeze then patted and pushed it away.

Dom chugged the rest of his Guinness and opened his third. “I want you to be nice to Bum while I talk to Ramsay.”

“Yes, I will.”

“You look a little red, Dom. Feeling alright?”

Dom said something softly to Bum in his deep, rumbling voice.

“What was that?” Ramsay asked.

“Are you done eating?”

“Sangwoo…”

Dom patted Bum’s head and finished his drink.

“Are you still going to pretend you’re so fucking superior? Really?And YOU. You LIVE with this guy? How? You have stairs, don’t you? You’re all bone, take a dive.”

Dom stood at once, red-faced with a black stare. “You hate me because you can’t believe that I’m better than you. You think I was given everything? What a pathetic excuses you tell yourself. YOU were given everything and all you can do is cry for more. Whine, whine, whine. _‘Where’s my money?’_ You’re a whore just like your mother. You want your passports?” Dom rounded the table.

“Reek, _stay.”_

Dom yanked Ramsay back, in a headlock. His chair crashed behind him as he was dragged, choking and kicking upstairs. _“Earn it.”_


	7. Why Aren't You Laughing?

Ramsay’s body crashed on the floor upstairs. His limbs unraveled, spinning out as he rolled away from Domeric. Just as he pushed himself up and dug his foot beneath his chest to sprint away, a kick to his ribs sent him spinning again. He hit a wall and curled, weezing to catch his breath. He scrambled to force his body up, against the pain and it’s every inclination. Dom grabbed his hair and tried to help him up by pulling it. He swept Dom’s ankle, dropping his brother and, unfortunately, causing Dom to slam his head into the floor and the bit of Ramsay’s arm which arrived in time to soften the blow.

Ramsay was choking on more barks; something about his mother. He coughed up the word ‘saint’ and Dom put the rest together. “Now who’s delusional?” He shoved Ramsay’s head down and squashed it as he sat up. Ramsay sprang up immediately, but Dom lurched forward and caught him by his neck and shoulders. “Shh. You’re being such a pain. It’s really annoying.”

He squeezed Ramsay’s arms and chest to restrict his breathing and range of motion. His hand released Ramsay’s throat and crept up to his chin. He felt around underneath. “You didn’t miss me? Not even a little? We’re so much _alike_.”

“Fuck you. You have that fucking homunculus downstairs to shove your cock into, so why don’t we talk money and I can-”

Dom’s thumb slid into Ramsay’s mouth to stop the barking. He kept pressing down on Ramsay’s jaw to mitigate the force of the bite that was probably coming. _“Ramsay.”_ His little half-brother shuddered in Dom’s embrace making his heart race… it was pounding actually. “Are you trying to seduce me, like your blue-eyed mother did to Father when she ruined my life for a few fucking yen?” His thumb escaped with just a bruise and nick at the very tip.

“THAT’S NOT WHAT HAPPENED, YOU RACIST ASSHOLE!”

Dom tilted his head. “Racist?” Ramsay dropped down. Dom's heart soared, then the back of his head came rushing back and Dom was groaning, blind with pain on the floor. “My nose!”

 **“THIS** IS WHAT HAPPENED!” Ramsay barked above him. “She wasn’t a fucking prostitute just because she was Russian you backwards, ignorant, self-righteous asshole! SHE didn’t happen to Father in Tokyo! HE happened to her in Sochi!” Ramsay seemed to deflate suddenly. “He was a fucking monster! She was just a… mom.”

Dom sat up holding his swollen nose. “She’s dead?”

“Shut up,” Ramsay murmured weakly. He stood erect again, noticing the flaw in his performance. “I wrote a check to you from the Deutsche Bank account. Did you find it?”

“Is Reek an orphan too?”

“Oh my GOD!”

“Right?”

“STOP! Try to be sane for just a few more minutes. Just pretend like you do for EVERYONE ELSE you ever meet outside of that basement! The check is for 15 fucking million euros, ok? I don’t know what that is in won, but … it’s a fucking lot!”

“We can be a family.”

A noise escaped Ramsay which he had never heard himself make. He clutched his face with both hands and stumbled back to the windowsill. “Just listen-”

“How did they meet?” There was blood on his teeth and some under his nose, though it was hard to tell.

“If you want the money I’m giving you, simply authorize me as a user on my own fucking account. That way, my check to you will clear. Easy.”

“Why was he in Sochi if you’re not a liar?”

“You can drink more than I thought, Dom. How are you feeling, though? I bet you’d love to put your dizzy head down. Just give me my passports and take the fucking check to the bank. It’s LITERALLY money for NOTHING! What could be better? What choice could be easier?!”

“I want to know. I want you to listen to me for once!”

“For once?” Ramsay crossed his arms. “That is so typically dramatic of you. We barely know each other.”

“I want to know how my life ended up like this. I want to know why my mother is dead.”

“I mean… you killed her, right? Directly,” he stabbed the air in front of him with an imaginary knife, “or…” Ramsay sucked air through his clenched teeth and grimaced, _“innndirectly.”_

Domeric shot up then and swayed, turning crimson. “What the fuck does that mean?” He said so softly, Ramsay had to lean in to try to hear him.

“Listen, last chance. I have a black eye and bruised rib. I’m sure my masterfully tousled quaff is fucked all to hell. You’re bleeding and you’ll always have a bump in your otherwise perfect nose to remember me by. So let’s just call this one a fucking draw. Take your money and **Give. Me. My. Passports**. It’s a win/win.”

“I will,” Dom said in the same voice as before, the one their father used, and the fucker didn’t even know it.

“Great! You won’t-” Ramsay’s smiled dissolved when Dom came stomping over to crowd him into a corner.

“After I taste your tears. That’s what _I_ want.”

“Fuck you. Fuck you! You’re supposed to be my fucking brother, Dam-Domeric.”

Ramsay’s eyes closed then popped open over a manic grin. “Fine.” He sucker punched his brother with an uppercut to his sternum, with woefully limited success. Then the ceiling spun around him and floor batted him into the wall.

 

Bum watched Reek chant whispers to himself as he hid behind a shaky ball of limbs. He reached, and reached, and reached and touched at last.

Reek exploded with a horrified cry, but stopped as quickly when his eyes met Bum’s. He clutched his chest. “I’m sorry. Thank god it’s you.”

Bum warmed and lightened. He gingerly took Reek’s unique hand in both of his own. “I don’t think he’ll kill you.”

“Heh,” Reek meant to casually laugh but nearly screamed. “I hope not. I think, not for a long time anyway, right?”

“Right!” Bum patted Reek’s hand.

“What are you going to do?”

“Hmm.” Bum tried to imagine and smiled gently. “I think… I can try to talk to him.”

“Really?” Reek flinched and shook his head at another crash upstairs. “I should, believe me. I mean, he’ll be happy and we’ll just…” his exhaustion overwhelmed him again so that he lost his train of thought. “I don’t know. I’m sorry if we ruined… or hurt you. Is it better this way?”

Bum’s forehead wrinkled between his large eyes. “What? If I get to keep you?”

“Keep... me? Oh, shit. I see.” Reek nodded. _Of course_. “You expect Sangwoo to walk down those stairs alone?”

 _Oh my._ Now Bum understood the problem. “Reek, he always does.”

“Right. He always wins. If he didn’t, he wouldn’t be here.”

Bum started panicking at Reek’s resigned pity. “WHAT ARE YOU SO SURE ABOUT ANYWAY?!”

Reek shrugged and glanced at another thud on the ceiling. “There was a man who scared me more than anyone. More than either of them. They’re just diluted copies… better in a lot of ways; nowhere near as terrifying.”

“Just say your point!”

“I saw Ramsay disappear into a room with him and there was shouting and banging and crashes.” Reek dropped his head. “I was scared then. But he told me to trust him and he came out. Of those two monsters, he was the one to come out.”

Hot tears fled Bum’s eyes, even as he knew the poor man was lying to console himself. “You don’t know Sangwoo!”

“No. I don’t.” Reek’s sad sea green eyes rolled up and blinked under heavy lids. “But I know he’s not Roose Bolton.”

 

Ramsay ducked one blow and swung away from another like a door opening to let it through.

Dom groaned and held his pounding head. “What did you do to me?”

“I poisoned you and it’s about goddamn motherfucking time that shit started working! It cost me a fuck ton of money.”

Dom grabbed his chest.

“Fiiiiinnally! Heart attack, right? So here’s the fun part, while your heart is racing towards BOOM town, so is your toy’s tiny ticker. It’s romantic, honestly. And, really, would he want to live without you? How could he?!” Ramsay cheerfully laughed.

“No!”

“Then give me my fucking shit, Dom. Give me MY SHIT! GIVE IT TO ME! Then I’ll give you the antidote and even some some for your plaything. Why, you ask? How do you know I’ll actually blah blah blah, you babble? Because I have a vested interest in you not-dying. Win/win, Dom. Give me the passports, take the antidote, make the call, cash the check. Now I have to lives to save and a plane to catch.”

Dom pointed under the bed.

Ramsay shuddered.

 

_“Ramsay? Where are you hiding? I want to show you a trick.” Dom dropped to his knees and ducked to look under the duvet. “Found you.” He held out a scalpel. “I want to send you home with something. It will be a good reminder for you!” he laughed, happily. “A reminder to listen to your loving older brother.”_

 

“Right.” He swallowed and felt ill as the gravity of the room hit him. “This is your mother’s room. Jesus fucking Christ. If her mummified corpse is anywhere in here, ‘talking’ in your voice, I will be both upset and very disappointed in you.”

Dom vomited in front of the bedroom door.

_It’s just a fucking bed._

“It, haha, still smells like your piss under there.”

“Under- oh, very fucking funny.”

Dom rolled onto his back and pressed his hot face to the cool floor. “Don’t hurt Bumi.”

Ramsay tried to swallow but his mouth was dry. “Dom?”

“What?” his half-brother croaked.

“I need you to get it.”

A grin slowly broke out over Dom’s splotchy red face.

 

_“Be quiet. What if that drunk asshole stops yelling long enough  for father to hear?” Dom snuggled closer and wrapped all around his warm toy. “They all hate us. We got in their way. We’re mistakes, Ramsay, mistakes that ruined everything.”_

_“It hurts.”_

_“Shhh. You’ll get used to it, then it will be nice and you’ll always belong to me.”_

_“I tried to kill you,” Ramsay confessed in a dry sob._

_“Poison? So obvious. For me, anyway, because we’re family. How does it feel now?”_

_Ramsay whimpered. He felt doomed to the small, sick T.V. world that existed underneath the bed where echoes of his own quick breath would surround him forever. “Good,” he whispered. Dom licked the side of his wet face._

 

Now Dom was laughing, just rolling on the ground laughing. “GET IT?!”

“Yeah, that’s pretty good,” Ramsay admitted. “You want me to crawl under **that** bed? God, you’re a fucking asshole. I’m serious, Dom; I’m going to be very upset if there’s a husk of a corpse you didn’t have the courtesy to tell me about.”

“Hurry up.”

Ramsay groaned and paced the foot of the bed. It looked so low to the ground, he couldn’t have ever fit under there, much less with someone twice his size. “Fuck it.” Improvising does want planning can’t, so Ramsay flipped the flat wooden frame and its thin hard mattress.

“Hey!”

Ramsay couldn’t tell if Dom was unhappy because Ramsay ruined the punchline or because the bed was some kind of sacred shrine. It didn’t matter. Like a miracle, the bags were there. “Thanks a lot, fuckhole.”

Ramsay dropped a check on Dom’s face and jogged downstairs with both bags. “REEK!”

Dom started retching upstairs and calling for Bum.

Ramsay snapped at the door. Reek squeezed Bum’s hands now and hurried over. “Master,”

“Go outside.”

“Please, Bum… I wouldn’t know how to live without you. Couldn’t-”

Ramsay grabbed Reek by his neck and shoved him into the wall. “Are you going to save someone else from me?"

Reek shook his head.

"Do you trust me, like you said you would?”

Reek’s shoulders sank but he spoke with conviction. “I trust you.”

“Good boy. Outside.” Ramsay shoved Reek’s Go Bag into his chest.

Reek dropped his head and obeyed while Ramsay approached Bum, who was shriveling up under the kitchen table.

He bent low and enjoyed the sight a moment. “Go tell Sangwoo he isn’t dying. The only poison in him is alcohol. I’m guessing the whole drunk-abusive-stepfather put him off drinking, seeing as how there isn’t a drop of alcohol in this place, the bottle opener is pristine, and he doesn't seem to know he has an allergy, huh? Shit,” Ramsay giggled. “I thought I’d just get him drunk enough to take in a fight. Lucky me.” He pulled a flask out of his bag and took a swig, just to celebrate. “Tell him to cash that fucking check, for me.” He patted Bum’s face and winked.

 

“It'd be cooler if I drove off, instead of milling around a few blocks away waiting for this piece of shit.” He slid on his sunglasses and turned his nose up at the anticlimactic taxi they were sat in.

_“Ramsay.”_

Ramsay shook his head.

 _“Alexei.”_ Reek smiled.

“Better. We’ll have to practice last names and nicknames on the fourteen-hour flight to our new home.”

"Ok." Reek pressed into Ramsay's side and closed his eyes.

Ramsay winced and twisted himself so Reek wasn't laying on his aching ribs. He must look like a fucking disaster. "It would have been cooler if I _drove_  off while that shitty house was burning down with Dom inside.”

“That wouldn’t work anyway,” Reek yawned. “It’s raining.”

Ramsay rubbed his cheek into the top of Reek’s head. "Hmm. All kinds of shit got in my way this time."

 

Sangwoo kissed Bum all over. He kept demanding reassurance that he was really alright.

Of course, Ramsay would never really try to kill his only family, but he seemed rather jealous of Bum. He held Bum until he passed out smiling and more whole than ever before on Sangwoo’s chest.

In his pocket, Dom kept two fingers on the check Ramsay left. He closed his eyes, listened to the rain and thought about the calls he could make.

In his pocket, with the tips of his fingers, Bum touched a lock of bunny soft hair.


End file.
